/ 2017 / Portraiture / Culture

Woman in black in the City of the Dead

  • Photographer
    Michele Cortina, Italy

A woman in black dress walks inside the southern cemetery of Al-
Qarafa, in Cairo (Egypt). The "City of the Dead" is the largest
Islamic cemetery in Cairo since 600 a.C., but it is also a part of the
city where around graves, one million and half people have built
their homes and have become residents and at the same time
custodians of the tombs. Living in the City of the Dead often
means escape from the overwhelming Cairo, where the high cost
of adequate houses and the fast growth of the population is
generating uncontrolled neighborhoods and hostile places.

Born in Italy, I'm a self-taught amateur, part-time photographer. It's a passion not a job, and I'm led by emotion and curiosity. I like documentary photos, reportage, visual stories and street photography. My first portfolios and set of photos are in Cairo, Egypt, where I currently live.